


every rose has its thorns

by Peanutbuttercrackers



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25696192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peanutbuttercrackers/pseuds/Peanutbuttercrackers
Summary: steven encounters a strange new gem, and he's determined to help her
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

A beam of light blazed through the garden, the curly-haired gem didn’t know what she was doing back here, she only went back there to check how the place was doing, she certainly didn’t expect her “best friend” to still be standing there, eagerly waiting for someone who was never going to return.

“Hello?”

“spinel?”

“yeah, that’s me, who are you?” she asked dejectedly

“I’m-I’m rose quartz” she sighed

“never heard of her”

ignoring her previous statement, she asked her, “what are you doing here?”

“I’m playing a game with pink diamond, a really long game,” she said with a shaky smile, her thoughts about pink began to waver again, they’ve been doing that a lot lately.

so she really didn’t know…

“but, spinel haven’t you heard? pink diamond is gone, shes been shattered” she told her, not daring to look her in the eyes.

“hah! that’s a nice joke” she yelled, her voice shaking.

“spinel I’m not joking-”

“No, No, No, No, NO!” she shouted this time, finally breaking down.

“she can’t be gone!” she sobbed, tears streamed down her face.

“I’m sorry spinel but-”

“ENOUGH” her fists had suddenly become giant, she didn’t want to hear any more of her nonsense, pink was gone and so was her purpose, she started to throw punches at her from every angle, but her shield kept blocking her punches.

suddenly she felt numb and then pain all at once, a sword struck right through her.

“guess I lose” she sniffled and smiled at the same time.

and with that, she was gone, she caught her gem as it fell and bubbled her,she sighed.

it seemed like there was no end to her mistakes.

________________________________________________________________

“I’ve made a horrible mistake!” steven shouted,falling out of lions mane.

“What?” bismuth shouted, confused

“hold on, I can fix it” he yelled quickly jumping back into the lions mane, all of a sudden, the heart-shaped gem began to glow, a gem was forming, it was too late.

the gem had fell face first, suddenly getting up, looking around confused and scared, then she turned to steven, she had black tear marks running down her face, broad shoulders, bushy pigtails, and her gem was upside down.

steven suddenly fell out of lions mane, he gasped for air,” there’s a gem inside of lions mane!” he exclaimed

“a gem?” pearl said puzzled

“Describe her,” garnet said

“Hold on a sec,” steven said, going back into lions mane

and there she was, still looking around confused and scared and then she saw him but he was already gone

“He-hey! wait!”

“shes big,” He said and he was back in again.

“D-Don’t leave!”

“with bushy pigtails and black mascara”

“bushy pigtails?” pearl said, even more, confused

“doesn’t ring a bell,” bismuth said,” what does her gem look like, steven?”

“it’s heart-shaped and upside-down”

“It can’t be…” pearl said, suddenly worried

“can’t be what?” amethyst asked, very confused

“steven, bring her out,” pearl told him

“ok,” he told her, and he was right back in, he looked around for the strange gem but she was nowhere to be found, huh? where did she-, a hand was suddenly placed on his shoulder.

“He-hey”

he flinched away.

“W-wait!,p-please don’t go! I promise I won’t cause any trouble, just please don’t leave me here”

~~_not like she did_ ~~

he stretched out his hand, giving her a smile

and then they were finally out.

“S-spinel? how did you-where did you-”

“pinks diamonds pearl” she whispered, staring right at her

“Excuse me? what? I think you must be mistaken, our pearl belongs to no one, right pearl?” bismuth asked her, but pearl didn’t say anything, she just stared at spinel, silently begging her.

“pearl?”

“YOU KNEW I WAS IN THERE BUT YOU DID NOTHING” she shouted at her, her fists enlarged and she started throwing punches at her, but by then, the gems had already taken out their weapons.

you’re just like her

“Listen up, whoever you are, if you don’t stop this, we’ll have no choice but to poof you” bismuth yelled at her, narrowly avoiding her attacks.

“I-I, ugh-” she pulled at her pigtails in frustration

~~_No, not again_ ~~

she ran to the warpad, not wanting to be bubbled away again.

“W-wait!,” steven ran after her, barely managing to make it to the warpad in time.

“steven! no!” pearl yelled, but they were already gone.

________________________________________________________________

“spinel! where are we going?”

“back, to where I never left,” she said emotionlessly

and before they knew it, they were already there, it looked like a garden…? or what was left of a garden, he assumed, the plants were all dead and the pillars were all ruined.

“What…is this place?”

“This _used_ to be our garden, where me and pink used to play,” She said, her words laced with anger and hate.

“pink..?” he asked, confused

“ _pink diamond_ , don’t you know her?”

“No, I don’t, I’m sorry”

“of course, you don't” she chuckled

“she _left_ me here on this pathetic excuse of a garden, just for her dumb colony, but I suppose you already know that, don’t you _rose quartz?_ ”

suddenly he was getting pinned to a wall,” Don’t play dumb with me _rose quartz_ , Nobody else but pink knows about this place, I don’t know who you think you’re trying to fool, but I ain’t falling for it again, not after last time”

“w-what are you talking about?” he gasped, struggling to breathe.

“don’t pretend you don’t know what happened, _rose_ ”

“w-wait, I’m not my mom, I don’t know what she did, but I’m sure she didn’t mean to hurt you” he tried to reason with her, but she didn’t want to listen.

~~_you’re the reason why I’m like this_ ~~

“its too late, I’m done listening to you” she yelled at him, blinded by rage and confusion

she stepped back, forming a giant fist, ready to strike, she lunged her whole body at him.

steven suddenly formed a spiky bubble, Woah, this again? wait spinel-, but it was too late, the spikes had already gone through her.

she was crying now,” you should’ve left me back there, at least if I was still here I wouldn’t have to know how little I mattered to you, you bubbled me away and didn’t even tell them what happened to me” she sobbed, what did she do wrong? what did she do to deserve this?

~~_was I not good enough for you?_ ~~

“I’m going to tell them, I’m going to tell them everything”

she looked at him in surprise and then she chuckled,” then you really are better than her” and just like that, she was gone.

steven sighed and bubbled her gem, another mess he had to clean up.

he warped away and before he knew it, he was back home, the first person to spot him was pearl,” steven! a-are you ok? what happened?”

and then the other crystal gems saw him too, he sighed,” I need to talk to you guys”

________________________________________________________________

steven looked at all the invitations for garnets wedding and then he stared at the temple door, he picked up a sharpie and wrote something down, on an invitation card, the name ‘SPINEL’ was written in big capital letters, he walked into the temple and looked around and then he spotted her, he floated up and grabbed the bubble, he sighed before finally popping it.

she was back but she looked different, she was now wearing a pullover hoodie and her mascara was gone.

“where am I? what happened-” and then she saw him.

“heyyy, spinel, long time no see” he chuckled nervously

“ _pink,_ I mean, steven,” she said cautiously

he sighed,” spinel, We need to talk"


	2. Chapter 2

Steven had finished explaining everything to Spinel, she still looked a little scared, he did his best to calm her down, he explained how his mom faked her shattering, how she reformed to be rose, how nobody knew she was pink, spinel was still a little confused, why? why would she do that? it all made a lot more sense the more he explained it

“oh! I forgot to mention, I wanted to invite you to garnet’s wedding!” he said, cheerfully

she questioned, confused, she didn’t know who this ‘garnet’ person was, but she seemed important to steven

“yeah! I’ll explain more on our way out” he smiled, taking her hands slowly and leading her out of the temple

she walked with him out cautiously, still not sure if he was being serious, everyone was still outside setting everything up

“it’ll be fine! I promise!” he tried convincing her, noticing how anxious she was

she kept looking around nervously, twiddling her thumbs, steven sighed a little but suddenly the door opened, it was pearl! spinel flinched a little when she saw her

pearl was surprised to see spinel, how did she-? and then she saw steven right beside her, she sighed, of course

“oh! steven! and spinel” she said nervously, behaving cautiously

she sighed once again. she had to do this, one way or another

“spinel, I…I need to talk to you,” she said, nervously

“huh?” she said, snapping out of her daze 

she sat down on the couch, patting the spot beside her as if to call her over

“I just I-..wanted to tell you-” she was cut off

“If it’s about pink, I already know, Steven told me,” she said, even the mention of _her_ sent her into a rage

“oh! well, one more thing, I…just wanted to apologise for bubbling you away,” she said,

“yeah whatever, you _knew_ I was in _there_ but you didn’t do anything!” she raised her voice a little, steven was in the back, getting more worried each second

“Nobody knew you were in their spinel, I guess everyone just forgot about you” she explained

~~_forgot about you_ ~~

“what did you just say?” she said, her voice laced with anger, grabbing her by the collar 

“Spinel, stop!” steven yelled, standing in front of her

she just stared at him 

“Please, this isn’t the way!” he pleaded

she sighed, dropping her, pearl falling on the floor with a thud

steven takes her outside and explains that ruby and sapphire were getting married and there was still tons of decorating to be done

“oh! hey, since your here, you could help out if you want,” he said, happily, leading her out to the beach 

“hey, steven can you-” Amethyst turned around to see none other than spinel, how did she get out? didn’t steven bubble her?

she pulled her whip out and grabbed her, “what are _you_ doing here?” she questioned angrily

“wait! amethyst, stop!” he yelled

“she’s on our side now, she’s not gonna hurt us!” he told her, pulling her weapon off of her

spinel stood off to the side as steven explained to amethyst what was going on

he walked over to spinel, sighing tiredly 

“I’m sorry about that, spinel” he apologised

“it’s fine, I don’t blame her,” she said, surprisingly calm

steven walked back inside to the warp pad, spinel following him

“I gotta go grab peridot, I’ll be right back, I promise,” he said, smiling before warping off

spinel still looked a little worried but he promised he’d be back, he wouldn’t lie to her, right?

and sure enough, he did come back

——————————————————

The ‘wedding’ as steven called it, was going great that is until the sky got darker huh? what was going on? was this normal on earth?

and then two giant arm like ships appeared, it looked sort of like the diamond’s ships, but it couldn’t possibly be them, right?

and it didn’t look they were here for the wedding

oh boy, this was going to be a long night

________________________________________________________________

spinel sat on the beach beside steven, they had just come back from homeworld, she was exhausted, being under white diamond’s control sure took a lot out of her, she sighed contently, even though the diamonds were on their side now, it still felt like a part of her was missing, like there was something she needed to find

“hey, steven?” she turned to him for help, he was always good at that

“yeah?” he said, strumming his ukelele lightly

“have you ever felt like you don’t belong somewhere?” she asked, her head on her knees, staring at the ocean

“sometimes, why?” he asked, wondering where she was going with this

“It’s just that I don’t feel like I belong here” she stated, remembering how the crystal gems still treated her like an outsider

“spinel, what are you saying?” he asked, getting up 

she sighed,” Steven, I don’t belong here, I don’t belong with the crystal gems, there are so many things I want to do, what I’m trying to say is, I’m leaving, steven,” she said, not daring to look him in the eyes, she had been thinking about this for a while now

steven sighed, as much as he wanted her to stay, she was right, and it looked like she had already made up her mind

“I can’t stop you from leaving, but just promise me you’ll come to visit?” he said sadly, a few tears forming in his eyes

“of course I will, someone has to check up on you” she smiled, pulling at her hoodie strings slightly

“one last hug before you go?” he said, opening his arms

“sure, why not” she wrapped her arms around him multiple times, they stayed like that for a while

she was the first to let go. and she saw the tears, crap, she sighed again

“I got something for you, here” she took something out of her gem and put it in his hand

it was a communicator? how did she find one of those?

“Spinel, where did you get this?” he asked concerned, inspecting it, it looked new too

“stole one from the diamonds,” she said casually as if it was no big deal

“I thought it might make you feel better about all this, now you can call me whenever you feel like it,” she said, trying to cheer him up

“Thank you so much!” he said, happily

she only smiled at him, ruffling his hair slightly, “see ya later kid” she said, starting to walk away, turning her back to him, her hands in her pockets

“see you later, Spinel” he mumbled, his smile shaking slightly

It was going to be a while before they saw each other again but one thing they both knew, they were always going to be there for each other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part 3 coming soon! ;] enjoy!!


End file.
